> Anyone walking back from
church in Brampton on Sunday, June 16 1667 may have looked over a hedge and seen Samuel Pepys' wife, Elizabeth, and her father-in-law, John, digging furtively in the garden. They were burying the gold of his son, Samuel, which they had brought from London in a night bag on a coach the previous Thursday. Pepys, then Surveyor General of Victuals for the Navy, had been keen to evacuate his wealth on hearing the news that the Dutch Navy had seized an English warship, the Royal Charles, at Chatham and were on the point of sailing up the Thames to seize London.
> > Pepys wrote in his diary of his father and wife's mission to hide the gold: "Pray God give them good passage, and good care to hide it."> The Cambridgeshire property called Sycamore Farm, but now known as Pepys House, was Pepys' house in the country. He coveted it from a young age – he may have lived here while he was attending Huntingdon Grammar School in the 1640s.
>
> Upon his uncle's death, it passed to Pepys' father and was later inherited by Pepys himself. He often talked of retiring to Brampton, but it does not seem that it ever became his permanent home. The garden may, however, still contain some of Pepys' gold. The plan to store the treasure did not go to plan. When Elizabeth returned to Pepys' London home in the aply-named Seething Lane, he was furious at her account.
> > He wrote: "My father and she did it on Sunday, when they were gone to church, in open daylight, where, for aught they knew, many eyes might see them, which put me into such trouble, that I was almost mad… Such was my trouble at this, that I fell out with my wife…"
> > Pepys returned to Brampton in October to recover the gold under cover of night. He found it, though not without scolding his wife and father again. Pepys found that he was 25 sovereigns short. Whether he later found the missing coins
is not recorded: two years later, with his eyesight failing, he was forced to stop writing his diary. But if he didn't, there is presumably a bonus awaiting anyone who buys Pepys House. Be warned: part of the garden now lies in a neighbour's garden. A cache of coins did turn up in 1842, but they were silver half-crowns dating from Elizabeth I and James I.
> > In the early 18th century, the property was extended and now has a Georgian dining room.> > Pepys House is for sale freehold for £450,000 (Bell & Co, 01481 822562). If that sounds low for a four-bedroom, Grade II house, with a large garden within commuting distance of London, there is a slight snag. The property is held by a trust set up by the Pepys Club. The lease, originally for 99 years, does not expire until 2028. While the lease cannot be extended, you may not get vacant possession for 17 years.
> > Text, with one interior and one exterior
photograph:> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/periodproperty/8411565/Pepys-and-his-house-of-hidden-gold.html
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